Advent Calendar 2
by DdraigCoch
Summary: A snippet a day until Christmas! Many charters, many situations (most of them have something to do with xmas). December 2nd & 3rd up!
1. Dec 1st

**Title:** Advent Calendar  
**Fandom:** Harry Potter  
**Part:** Dec 1st  
**Pairing:** RemusxSirius  
**Warning:** Suggested Slash  
**Spoilers:** Up to and including OotP  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, Remus Lupin or any of the characters or situations herein. JK Rowling owns them. I just write for pleasure and procrastination.  
**Note:** A nice simple one for you today.

The room is dim, but what little light that filters in from outside reveals a decrepit old bed at its centre. There is no other furniture, only pieces of shattered and scattered wood, sometimes a spring or the stuffing of a chair. Deep grooves can be seen in the larger pieces and even the floorboards and the bed. Especially the bed; where the mattress and quilt are simply a mess of feathers, torn cloth and blood. But even this is in a better condition than the man nestled in the centre of this carnage and the only occupant of the room. Dawn chill brings out goose flesh on the parts of his snowy skin that are still visible between the bites and scratches. There may have been scars on that skin, but it's so hard to tell with his heart weakly beating away what's left of his blood into the feathers.

Strangely there's no pain on his face. No tears on his cheeks from the pain that's wracking his body. But there is a small, bitter smile curving his soft lips. His amber eyes are fixed intently on the door, bright and aware of what's happening to him. He's dying, but he doesn't think he'll get to go on that far. Not now, not yet, not without taking at least one of the two they hate with him. Something else flashes through his eyes momentarily. Something predatory. Something primal. And his fingers close into a fist in response to the feeling. It's the most strength he has to spend.

As he knew they must, two women enter the room; the youngest cautiously, the eldest with sure confidence of the professional in their natural environment. She looks down at him and shakes her head silently, no horror on her face although he can taste it in her scent. She's familiar, from long ago, but familiar. The grey hair, the matronly demeanour, the faint smell of disinfectant. He knows her name, and tries to force it past abused vocal cords. She hushes him, and puts a bottle to his lips that eases the pain in his throat and body. He imagines the cuts slowly slop bleeding, as he knows they will, and ignores the blatant horror on the young one's face.

_"I– I- Poppy, is he going to…?"_

She's terrified, he realises distantly as the bottle is taken away and numbness starts spreading.

_"He'll be fine."_ Certainty, authority. He smiled again, softly, as he let himself fall into unconscious. Just before he submits completely, he hears the younger one talking as he's lifted from the bloody nest and wrapped in a rough blanket.

_"Why didn't he tell us Sirius meant that much to him?"_

_"Dear, that's none of our affair."_

He agrees with her silently as darkness finishes its task, taking him away to the little death. It has absolutely nothing to do with them.


	2. Dec 2nd

**Title:** Advent Calendar  
**Fandom:** Harry Potter  
**Part:** Dec 2nd  
**Pairing:** None  
**Warning:** None  
**Spoilers:** Up to and including OotP  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, Remus Lupin or any of the characters or situations herein. JK Rowling owns them. I just write for pleasure and procrastination.  
**Note:** MWPP one today.

It was stifling, all these people packed so closely together in their huge formal robes which were three layers thick as current fashions dictated that they be. Rivulets of sweat ran down his forehead dispite the chill night outside the comparitivly small hall. If it wasn't for the tinsel and egg nog you'd never belive it was Christmas at all. Of course he couldn't really hold his father to blame, since the older man had never expected all of his invited guests to turn up in the first place. That they had had come as a rude surprise to his mother. They were, as far as he knew, still arguing upstairs.

"Jamesey!" The butchering of his name could only hasve come from one of the guests, and he was proved right when the dark, exuberant face of Sirius Black appeared in his line of vision. Following it were the awed face of Peter and the resigned sigh of Remus Lupin.

"Not gotten around to putting him down yet then?" He asked the werewolf in a cheerful manner. Amber eyes sparked with humour as he simply shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid you'll have to accept a different present from me this year."

The other dark haired boy looked askance at them, but knew well enough not to rise to their baiting. Instead he turned to observe the party with a wide grin.

"Good turn out, eh Prongs?"

"A little too good. Mother is yelling father up one wall and down the other as we speak."

"Ahhhh, well. Better too many than none at all, right?"

"By which he means," Remus spoke up, saving his drink nimbly from a passing woman in a robe that was absurdly puffed up. "Thank you for inviting us; and that if you do want to make an escape we're ready to implement it."

James looked questioningly at his three friends. Peter nodded fervently and appeared to want to step even closer to the other three – which was impossible since they were already standing shoulder to shoulder.

"They saw how full it was and set you this plan in three seconds flat. Got to be a new record!"

"Thanks for the offer guys, but you know what with helping to 'host' it and everything –"

He was interrupted by Mrs Potter's stormy entrance via the main doors, and saw his two aunts join her to track him down and force him to dance with them for the rest of the evening in place of his father. Dispite the red cheeks caused by the warmth of the hall, James paled considerably.

"-Get me out of here!"

He had enough time to think that Sirius' immediate grin was not reassuring before the dark haired boy slipped a blue tablet into his drink and downed it. The effect was immediate. He became a very, very pale green colour, and Remus put his arms out to support Sirius, looking convincingly worried.

"James! Quick, where's the loos? I told him not to eat all that before getting in the Floo!"

Taking the hint, James led them out through the crowd, past his hunting relatives and up the stairs to his own rooms where Remus forced a different pill into Sirius' determinedly closed mouth.

"Never knew you had it in you Moony!" James laughed, falling onto the bed along with a relived Sirus and excited Peter. The werewolf just smiled mysteriously at them as he sat down on the floor near the door.

"What, did you think I wasn't as much a Marauder as you or Sirius?" He chuckled. "Merry Christmas, Prongs."


	3. Dec 3rd

**Title:** Advent Calendar  
**Fandom:** Harry Potter  
**Part:** Dec 3rd  
**Pairing:** Hermione/Ron  
**Warning:** Het, Fluff  
**Spoilers:** Up to and including OotP  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, Remus Lupin or any of the characters or situations herein. JK Rowling owns them. I just write for pleasure and procrastination.  
**Note:** Because it had to be done

Ron shifted nervously from foot to foot before the mirror, running his hands over his red hair in an effort to smooth it into it's already well worn place. Harry, who had been watching this performance for a quarter of an hour now, snapped and dragged him away from the large mirror.

"Ron, you look fine!" He ground out. And indeed the youngest Weasley boy did, filling out his new robes handsomely, his red hair styled into a becoming shape for once. But it didn't stop him from fidgeting.

"Harry, why won't you come along? It'd be easier with you there…"

"No way! I'm steering clear of the Christmas Ball this year! But you and your date have fun." Grinning he ushered him out the door and locked the dorm behind him. With nowhere else to go, Ron trudged down the stairs to the common room slowly, not wanting to bring about the inevitable any faster than he had to. Tonight would be a disaster, a fiasco! He'd just end up making a fool of himself again, or they'd end up fighting without Harry there to stop them. Why had this idea even occurred to him in the first place?!

But still he went and waited at the portrait hole, bearly noticing the white berry's hanging over his head. Shortly, he was joined by a girl in burgundy red robes and hair that was no longer bushy. She smiled nervously at him.

"Ready?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Yeah, you?"

She nodded, and he awkwardly held out his arm to her which she took with a little smile.

"Um… Lets go then?"

"Yes, but umm…" She pointed upwards at the sprig of Mistletoe, a hint of red chasing across the top of her cheeks. He coloured too, but leaned forward to kiss her softly, breifly on the lips. Hermione smiled at him as he pulled away, and he returned it before pushing open the portrait and helping her through it.

"Nice tradition, that one. Don't you reckon?"


End file.
